It's been a truly dystopian year, I realised that the 'novel coronavirus' wasn't going to stay something that only affected foreign people far away. I've had to confront my fears of society collapsing in a way that makes my early 80s fear of nuclear war seem like a fucking picnic. I've toiled away at my remote working table in the front room in callous spring sunshine, summer heat and winter chill. I might never work back at base again before I retire. And yet there are still cunts talking about 'dying with COVID' and pretending it's all a hoax.

Charles in Survivors was accused of finding that life after the plague suited him just fine. And there are many things I've enjoyed about this one. I like my own company and I like not having to go in to work.

0600 0/8 very low cloud Moon-through
HEAVY FROST
-2°C
->Some sun
Cold

'Major incident' declared in Weffolk re coronavirus. Rates in Benfield and Bragston are 3x the level here!

0400 0/8 As Moon halo FROST
-><8
Some sun
Cold

Miserable dark cold winter day, but dry at least.

8 S
Dark
Same all day
Colc
200 0 Moon

BANK HOLIDAY.

0100 0 Moon FROST
0400 8
LIGHT RAIN?
0700 ~4
->Sun

Must've been quite windy last night, because all the empty bins at the end of the garden had blown over.

Went out about 12.30 - the weather was clearing rapidly and I felt a lot better for the exercise. By the time I came back it was a fine sunny day with shower clouds, ideal for a post-Christmas walk.

0800 8 Dark
1030 Clearing
1130 Sun
1230 4 large Cu
Some virgae

BOXING DAY.

8 S/Sc all day
Cold
2200 WINDY

CHRISTMAS DAY. Am waiting for 4pm Zoom with parents.This is, as I said, the first Christmas I've ever spent on my own, but it's been surprisingly good fun so far.

Typically 4 Ci Sun
Cold

CHRISTMAS EVE. Remembered last Christmas Eve that chat with A about how he'd been turned down to work 100% remote. I bet that position won't have survived the events in 2020.

Picked up Little Women after lunch to look at the opening quote, ended up reading for an hour, beyond the pickled limes episode.

0600 8 Cold
->
0900 Some sun
1400 HEAVY SHOWER
~1900 SHOWER

8
Brighter at times

Moon overnight
0700 HEAVY FROST
Very cold->≤8 Sun

Was up extra early, as I wanted to call at the Tesco Express when it opened at 7. Turned out my timing was excellent, because the new variant virus led to France closing its border, and the lorries - which had already been queuing into Dover because of Brexit stockpiling - tailed back for miles and made everyone panic-buy again.

Wasn't just France either, loads of other countries round the world have cut Britain off. The UK seems to be on fire and drifting towards a waterfall.

0500 8 RAIN
0900 Heavy
--> stops
INTERMITTENT RAIN later

Ironically parents turned up unasked in the afternoon with my presents. They shouldn't've left a Tier 4 area really, but since they were at the door I brought out their presents.

Into town for hurried 1-person Christmas dinner ingredients. The only turkey that would keep was turkey burgers, so got those and an individual pud.

Another good view of the conjunction about 4.30. Closer together than yesterday, about ¼ Moon-width (7').
NB altitude 12°, visible over opposite houses from downstairs.

Early SHOWERS
->Sun
Cold

Jupiter-Saturn conjunction being talked about, but it's very low down, and on my worst horizon (SW).
(4.55pm). Just seen it - Saturn about 15' from Jupiter, at about half-past ten from it. New Moon away to the S.

New rules were announced re coronavirus at 5pm that make it seem irresponsible to go to my parents' as planned. It'll be the first Christmas I spend by myself. Two pluses though, firstly it'll be good practice for when I'm very old, secondly I'll be able to drink all the Montrachet myself. 'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents'.

0700 8 dark '9p' Sc
INTERMITTENT RAIN
1200 SHARP SHOWER
Sun ever-decreasing cloud
1800 RAIN

0700 ≤8
Bright cracks
Breezy S
1200 RAIN

~2 Sun
Cold

0630 Some *
->much sun
>=1500 Cloudier

Got another 15 boxes down from the loft. My JK Rowling books had all curled up. Almost as if they'd shrivelled from within.

0630 *
->0 Sun

0500 RAIN
0630 *
->0 Sun
1700 RAIN

0700 8 Calm
0930 RAIN
Breezy
1400 Bright

In the evening felt a bit cold and bleak. I really do need to get out of this house. I think I'll feel better when I've emptied the loft.

0700 8
1000 RAIN
1700 cont

Another rainy morning.

0400 RAIN
0800 stops
1300 Some sun
1400 8

A cold grey day with a cold grey East Coast wind.

8 dark 'wet' S

0300 RAIN
~1030 stops
Some sun later

Thick fog in the morning.

0600 SKY OBSCURED FOG
--->
1200 8
1500 MIST

0700 8
->1100 0 Sun

<8 Bright cracks
->Occasional sun
0915 SHOWER

Yesterday's rain carried on all night, so I was surprised to glance out of the kitchen window about 5am and see snow lying. It snowed too, into the morning, before turning to rain.

Made another loaf with beer yeast - let the yeast work for a while in the warm water before adding it, and it came out perfect - certainly better shaped than any loaf I ever made with the bread yeast.

Surprised to glance at barometers and see them very low in the afternoon, 978 mb.

(RAIN cont)
0500 ½" SNOW lying.
SNOW ---> RAIN
stops
1330 Sun-break
1400 978mb

Walked through the park to the storage place in the drizzle.

0700 8 dark S
0930 RAIN
1600 cont
Breezy
(RAIN cont)

Busy day of remote work and putting up the decorations - latter as break from former. Was surprised how quickly I got the tree dressed 4 baubles at a time.

0600 0 FROST
->Sun
-->Clouding
1730 DRIZZLE

To the doctor's for flu vaccination, which was administered in the car park! Good to see that the NHS can get it together to do vaccinations in a way that won't spread coronavirus.

Was glad of my foresight in wearing a top with push-uppable sleeves! Imagine having to take something off over my head in the open! Suppose they had a screen somewhere for that.

At least I didn't have to wait. I was the only patient in sight.

0700 Sun FROST
--->cloudier

(8.15pm). The Moon doth shine as bright as day.

0700 8 MIST
->0900 FOG
RAIN later
1915 RAIN
2000 3 Moon
Wind N

On Christmas Day mum wants me to mind the dinner while they go for a walk with my brother.

8

Got a text saying I could have a flu vaccine on Tuesday, but only then. Apparently very low incidence of flu this year because of distancing and face coverings, but I don't want to die an ironic death, so will go.

0700 8
FAR MIST
--->Sunny intervals

Beer yeast bread very nice - bitter/sour savoury undertone to it.

0700 0
->->MIST
c.1400 lifts
≤8 Sun-breaks
Wind S

Slept very soundly, up at 4 feeling great. On way to Tescos admired a beautiful pastel blue, grey and yellow sunrise, and thought about how many sunrises I've seen lately, since I started getting up early.

Later made bread experimentally with the beer yeast I acquired during the great shortage in the spring.

≤8 Bright at times
1630 Sun-breaks
->Moon

Spoke to parents on phone, got to think about when I want to arrive at on Dec 24th - mum doesn't want dad driving after dark that day, so the latest would be 4pm and the earliest would be about 1pm, for lunch.

≤8
c.1400 Sun-break
c.1700 SHOWER

Went out in the garden for a few minutes in the afternoon, as I do on days when I'm at home all day. I felt quite sad looking at the overgrown borders, and thinking what a nice house this could have been..

On the other hand I have done some solid good things here: replacing all the fences, putting up the side fence and gate, painting the shed, planting the thuja, putting up the balustrade, painting the stair wall, carpeting the stairs and landing, getting the front repointed.

I'm hoping that those good works have earnt me enough merit to depart in good order.

Some sun

0700 ~4 FROST
->sun
1300->->8

Much sun

0700 8 Sc
1430 Sun-break
Cold

0700 0 FROST
->sun
--->8
1400 RAIN

Tesco quite crowded; it felt a bit ominous and pre-plague, though it might just be that I'm used to how it is at 7am now rather than 11.

Walking home I was watching leaves fall off the trees in Festive Rd and remembering how we used to try and catch them for luck, and I never managed to. One of them planed down past my hand, and I could have caught it if I'd been willing to drop the bag I was carrying. But then it veered sideways and fell across the top of the bag, so I quickly pushed it inside with my other hand.

Some sun Cu, Ci
Much colder
1200 RAIN

Phone conversation with parents in the morning; I said I was planning to see much more of them than before, once the plague abates.

0700 0
->Sun
--->1600 8
->Windy

8 Sc
Bright at times
1445 Sun

A second coronavirus vaccine announced today, and even more effective. Started feeling quite optimistic, though still wary of premature rejoicing.

Much sun
Cold
1700 RAIN

Talked to parents on phone at 8am, it was a good idea they suggested in the week, to phone twice-weekly during this current shutdown.

0600 8 HEAVY RAIN till ~0900
Windy
->
1400 Calmer
Sun\1530 SQUALLY RAIN

Into town early, got ceiling paint for the patches I have to cover up. I would've waited till after this shutdown, and got it from B&Q, but I had rucksack space and took the opportunity.

0700 8
1100-1500 SPELLS OF RAIN
1530 Sun-break
->WINDY

RAIN overnight
Breezy
0700 8
0800 LIGHT RAIN
stops
1100 LIGHT RAIN
stops
->Brighter

Much sun
Cold

Out at 6.45am to the town Sainsburys. Very foggy - atmospheric sunrise through the fog on my way back.

0600 FOG SKY OBSCURED
0715 Sun-through
->8

Vaccine story is still going. I can hardly believe there's an end in sight. It was 8 months ago yesterday that I came back from Scotland that Monday morning and found the shelves emptying at Sainsburys.

If the story stays good, it'll mean my plans are very much back on. There may be a period of boom psychology in the spring which might make selling the house easy.

RAIN in night
0700 <8
--->
1400 3 Cu Sun

Story in the NYT first thing about a 90% effective corona vaccine - shares up 4 or 5%. The BBC made a big deal of it at 1pm. I was watching while doing yoga and the sun was just breaking through the low cloud and fog that had made the morning gloomy.

0600 FOG SKY OBSCURED
--->Lifting
1300 Sun-through
1930 RAIN

Weather very mild, wore my green summer coat into town. On the way home I passed some people who'd all come out of their house to stand in the garden being silent. I looked at them incredulously.

News very watchable today, it feels like we've really dodged a bullet. Dubya of all people has weighed in to point out that Biden won fair and square, and to congratulate him. Doesn't say much for Trump that Dubya's showing him how to behave.
I say 'of all people' but apparently he is the only living Republican ex-president.

RAIN overnight
Ci & haze
Some sun
Very mild
1500 8 S

Just before 5pm all the news outlets 'called it' for Biden, as he was so far ahead in Pennsylvania that none of the recounts and bogus lawsuits could make a difference. That's a relief. Like the bit from LotR where Sauron's shadow fills all the sky, but a great wind blows it away.

This means Kamala Harris will be the first woman VP. The Americans have been comparatively slow in getting there

Since the last election here I've been thinking in terms of overlaying Apr 1992 onto Dec 2019. Not only have we already had our Black Wednesday in the form of the inept COVID response/Brexit handling, but now we've also had a repeat of the Nov 1992 US election, which I remember as equally being a consolation prize.

Typically 4 Ci Sun
Cold

Early today Trump made a load more false claims about fraud, which wasn't surprising in itself, but the media were openly pointing out that they were lies. Why has it taken them 4 years to start calling him out?

0700 FROST
Sun

Still no resolution, though Biden's been on top all day today. I saw that Giuliani making his claims - he's so crooked-looking, even though I had the telly on mute I didn't believe a word he was saying.

0700 ~1 Sun Moon
FROST
Cold

Up at 4, went with trepidation to the New York Times to see what our fate was, only to find an inconclusive outcome I hadn't bargained for. Biden was ahead though, and that's been the position all day, with Trump sometimes seeming likely to overtake him and sometimes not.

When I got back from Tesco Trump had falsely declared victory and I had a strange feeling of there being two alternate futures phasing in and out. All the US networks, even Faux, commented disapprovingly on this utterance of Trump's, and at first I thought 'He'll get them back for that- fake news, liberal media etc'. But then I realised that was only in one future. In the other it's the point where he started to look like a loser.

Later he tried casting suspicion on the absentee ballots, which are mostly Dem because it's they who feared they'd be prevented from voting in person. Once again the Republican politicians are being offered a choice between supporting Trump, and supporting the rule of law. This time though might be the last time there is a choice.

(9pm). Listening to the World Service news now it's 'How will President Biden - if it is President Biden - deal with this' and how many votes Biden needs to win, and Trump's people are reduced to suing and insinuating fraud. This is the most it's gone over to Biden so far. Then again, this is the closest election I've ever followed, it makes us 2016 and UK 2017 look like clear-cut conclusions. I thought it would be we who would be reduced to making legal challenges.

0600 FROST
~1 Cu Sun
Cold

Several people on Twitter described the atmosphere as being like 'negative Christmas Eve'. I know just what they mean. I see from my diary I was pretty brought down by the 2004 election, but this is the first US election I've been so anxious about beforehand.

(2) HEAVY SHOWERS AM
Sun Ac
Cold A

0700 WINDY
0900 <8
some sun
0930 SQUALLY SHOWER
More sun PM

Went out in the morning to B&Q for paint, in case it was difficult to get during the shutdown. It immediately started raining fine rain.

When I got there, it seemed lots of other people had had the same idea, because even though the store had only been open half an hour, there were 42 people queuing outside. I know, because I counted the number of 2m steps I moved forward. Took 15 minutes to get in.

0600 8
1000 RAIN
1115 Sun-break
->->~6
Stops
2000 WINDY

HALLOWE'EN. Had to wait a long time in Sainsburys even at 10am: suspect this is the first taste of pandemic Christmas shopping.

B. texted to say that he would just come for a distanced walk with us on Dec 25. He is very properly concerned about transmitting COVID from his work to parents.

Announcement awaited from evil Boris Johnson re putative shutdown till Dec. Not that he's evil because of that - compared with his attitude on Brexit, his coronavirus handling has been almost sensible.

8
Breezy SE
1300 RAIN HEAVY at times
1530 stops
<8
Some sun

8
1430 DRIZZLE
1500 stops

To Tescos early at 0730 - lucky too, because it was just starting to rain as I came home an hour later.

0700 8
0830 RAIN
1600 cont

Felt quite anxious in the morning, that cold, bright anxiety like Oct 1999 or Mar 1995. Coronavirus situation getting very grim these last few days, not helped by celebrity cunts boasting about how they're going to ignore the anti-infection protocols at Christmas.

HEAVY SHOWERS
Some sun

1000 RAIN
1130 stops
PM STEADY RAIN

Sun Cold
Increasing cloud

RAIN overnight
AM HEAVY SHOWERS
PM Some sun

0730 4 Ci
->Sun
0900 8
Some sun-breaks PM
1600 RAIN
Progressively windier

Early sun
->8
1300 SLOW SHOWER

Much sun

Horrible dark rainy day, was glad to be working at home.

Watched Public Eye at lunchtime; I've been watching it a lot these last few days, it's real quality stuff. I've got to that place I get to in such situations where I begin to feel its camera is following me; when I went to put the recycling out in the tipping rain, I could almost see my BW 60s face, and when I got back inside, I had a strange urge to make myself a cup of Nescafe on a gas-ring.

0400 RAIN 8
cont till c.1300
1600 RAIN
1800 <8

Some sun
PM Warmer

0700 8
0900 <8 Sc-allop
Sun crepuscular rays
->
More sun
Windier

Early brightness quickly turned to 'yellow sky in the morning', I but had my doubts about whether it was the kind that means rain - it was too Hubble palette blue-and-gold.

Second-coated the windowsills in the afternoon. A dry, grey, cold afternoon. Realised it'll be darker next week when the clocks go back.

About 4pm was doing the weekly analysis while watching an excellent ep of Public Eye, one where he comes out of prison and wanders round Brighton. Was conscious of an unusual feeling of well-being, a bit like John Dyson thinking of the butter in the refrigerator, or Adrian Mole with his toast and dripping and concentration camp play.

0800 ~4 Bright
->->8 S

Typically 8
Sunny periods esp PM

Boris Johnson has made some truly despicable, faux ingenuous comments at no-deal being inevitable because the EU supposedly didn't negotiate fairly. This from a man whose government openly admitted to breaking international law.

8 S
1400 Some sun

Essex has duly been put into Tier 2 - which means my parents, my sister and I have to decide which sibling is in the support bubble. If it's still in force at Christmas, I suppose we won't be able to share a Christmas dinner.

Cold
Some sun
HEAVY SHOWER

0700 SHARP SHOWER
->
Some sun
Cold

The corona news has been getting steadily worse this last week or so. I'm starting to feel oppressed by it the way I was months ago. The problem is that a critical mass of people have started not taking it seriously. This is one benefit of spending so many years consuming SF/F: when it all started in March I knew exactly what one was supposed to do during a plague.

Looking out of the bathroom window in the afternoon and seeing the low, wet grey clouds, and the trees losing their leaves, I was quite shocked that it wasn't still summer. There was something eternal about summer 2020.

8
1200 FINE RAIN long spells
2030 cont

≤8 Cold
Early sun
1400 SPOTS OF RAIN
1600 RAIN

Much sun
0800 ~4 Ac
1500 6 Cu
SPOTS OF RAIN

≤8 Cold
1200 SPELL OF LIGHT RAIN
1700 RAIN till 1800

Marvellous bit in Irish Times today about how Johnson/Cummings' strategy was 'like trying to play chess with the sea.'

Found fine Keynes quote in that Kynaston history of the City, about how the US forced Britain to make sterling convertible after the war, about England being 'sticky with self-pity' and failing to accept that its place in the world was no longer what it had been.

1300 5/5 Cu/Ci Sun
1830 0

AM RAIN ≤8 Dark Breezy

Much nicer weather. Slept well 9-5am.

Sun
Typically 4 low Cu
Breezy
Cold

HEAVY SHOWERS
Some sun
c.1500 THUNDER SHOWER
c.1600 RAINBOW

<8 Occasional sun
c.1100 SHOWER
Colder
1800 RAIN

Another wet day. Evil Donald Trump is still in hospital. I don't hope he dies, because that's the sort of thing his people would do. Also, him dying and him not dying could both work out well, or badly, for us. And finally, I don't really care if he's alive or dead, he's just a cunt.

8 S
LONG SPELLS OF RAIN

Too wet to do anything in the garden other than harvest the last potatoes. That's 5 weeks of spuds I've had.

8 dark Sc
SPELLS OF RAIN

8 low Sc
RAIN
WINDY at times

Slept pretty well, sometimes when I woke up it was raining, other times it wasn't, which for some reason I found pleasing.

SPELLS OF RAIN overnight
0700 8
Clearing slowly
1500 4 low Cu Sun

8 dark Sc
SHOWERS

Drizzly start, but I was in a drizzly mood, so it suited me. Weather changed after lunch - I was outside packing the bins of broken appliances neatly into 6 boxes.

RAIN overnight
AM DRIZZLE 8 dark Sc
1400 Some sun
Warmer
1800 0

When I was getting dressed it struck me that the coronavirus precautions will likely go right on through the winter and into spring. Quite a daunting prospect. At least back in March and April the weather was getting better.

Much sun

RAIN either overnight or in day
8 Sc
Cold

Cold again. Wore my autumn coat into town, wished I'd worn the padded one.

Cold
Dry
Some sun
PM SPOTS OF RAIN
Breezy NW

Quite cold at the moment - had to put the purple throw on the bed last night, and the heating came on today.
There are two more duvets I can deploy after the throw, so you might say I'm at DUVCON 3.

Occurs to me I ought to allow for bigger winter heating bills when I get to Scotland.

≤8
SPELLS OF RAIN
Sun breaks
WINDY->
VERY WINDY
Colder
1800 Clearer

0700-0800 RAIN
->
4 low Cu Sun Fresh breeze
1600 8 Sc
->RAIN

First proper wet day for a long time.

Heard bits of evil Boris Johnson's address last night, it's the first time I've ever been able to take him remotely at face value. Even then I could hear the attempts at Churchillian phrasing.

Read a scientist saying a lot of people have accepted the idea that COVID will cause a lot of deaths [not their own] and hence can't be arsed to follow the precautions.

RAIN overnight
≤8 SPELLS OF RAIN
Some sun

Another lovely day - more cloud though. Worked with the help of walks to the end of the garden to look at the trees and clouds.

Reports of panic buying again. Who cares if the pubs close early? Even during the shutdown the food shops were always open.

0600 0 -> Sun
1500 6 small Ac
Warm

A valuable lesson in the morning: radiation fog, which perhaps I should have foreseen, made it too dark to paint early, and perhaps too damp for it to have dried if I had. The best-laid plans.
Wasn't put off though; went shopping early, and when the fog had risen to become low cloud, I did the painting then.

Cloud burnt off later to another golden autumn day, put me in a really good mood.

0630 SKY OBSCURED MIST/FOG
0930 Rises 8
1100 0 Sun Warm

Another lovely day. Went out just before dawn at 7am and strolled up the garden. It occurred to me that I could paint the meter box then, rather than in the afternoon when the sun would be on it. (While keying it yesterday I noticed that the top, painted black as it is, was fiercely hot in the sun).
So 8am found me outside painting in the cool quiet of the best bit of Sunday.

0 Sun
Warm

Lovely early autumn day. Mowed lawns, dug potatoes.

Sun 0
Warm
Breezy

Very nice weather in the morning, fresh and bright with a cool E sea breeze. During the day many hints of Sep 28 1988.

0900 5 flat Cu Sun
FRESH
Wind E
Breezy
->1700 0
Windy

Sun much Ci
Cooler

When I finished washing up at 6.30 it was getting dark; the hot weather lately and working at home have delayed my realisation that we're well into September.

0800 SHOWER
->some sun
HOT
1900 SHOWER

Sun increasing high cloud
HOT

Up at 5.45 to a beautiful early Autumn day.

In typing up the 2005 diary, I've got to when I started the marginal weather log - Sep 27 2005. It reminds me of the format I used when keeping weather logs in my scribbling diaries 1984-1988.

0 Sun
HOT

As well as mowing lawns, cleared all the weeds away from the front of the house and the path and the steps there. Looks a lot better now.

Sun HOT

0700 8
--->
Sun Warm

Much sun
Breezy

Typically 4 Cu Sun
Cool

in the afternoon spent a minute appreciating a fair-weather Cu cloud grandly cruising eastwards

Typically 2-6 fair-weather Cu Sun
Warm

Splendid quote from one of the leaver ministers today, admitting that reneging on the withdrawal agreement was breaking international law, but 'in a specific and limited way'. That's one for the history books.

0700 8 Muggy
--->
1200 4 low Cu
->
2 Cu Sun
Warm

0700 7 mAck underlit Sun
->8 Sc
1000 SHORT SHOWER
Colder

0-5 Cu Sun

Fine early autumn day. Mowed lawns, dug up the first batch of potatoes. As always the biggest one was the one I put the fork through. (Though if you think about it, that shouldn't be a surprise).

0700 0
->Sun
2-8 Cu
Breezy NW

≤8 S
Sun-breaks

Was lying awake at 3.50 listening to short documentary about Walkmans, and thinking 'How quaint,' and then remembering that it was a Walkman I was listening to it on - the one with a radio which I bought in 2002.

8 Sc
Damp
1600 RAIN

0700 0
->Sun
1200 --->~6 Sc
1800 8
SLOW RAIN

0700 0 Sun
->0900 2 sm Cu
->8 Sc

≤8
Some sun
Cool

≤8
Some sun
Breezy

RAIN overnight
8
Cooler
Breezy
1630 DRIZZLE

Took a photo of a fine CuNi which the radar suggested might be somewhere over Sudbury. Working at home, I miss my top floor lunchtime cloudscapes.

0600 7 Sun at S edge in E
->
6-8 huge Cu Sun CuNi seen
1200 SHOWER with THUNDER
1645 SHOWER with SUN

0600 <8 Sun Red sky
->8 Sc
1500 SLOW RAIN

WINDY overnight
Abating
Some sun
1900 CALM

A windy, rainy day. In the morning I pleasantly alternated work with reading Riceyman Steps.

RAIN overnight
AM. RAIN WINDY
PM ~6-8 Sun
1930 SHOWER

4-8 Cu Sun
1910 HEAVY SHOWER

Picked up the fallen apples and mowed the lawns.

4-8 Cu, Sc Sun
Breezy
1800 SHORT SHOWER

Lovely clear sky and cloud colours today. I wish I could have been in a happier mood to enjoy it.

To the town Sainsburys again, as the days of queuing outside are obviously over. For now. Also to M&S, but only for organic veg. Back in April I'd be spending £35 in there.

~4 Cu Sun
Clear colours
1900 SHOWER with SUN

Sun ~4

0600 Some sun
1145 8 RAIN
->Windy

Some sun
1430 THUNDERY SHOWER

0600 SKY OBSCURED MIST
lifts
0900 Sun Cu
1300 6 large towering Cu
1400 SHOWER

Early in the afternoon weeded and swept back yard, picked up the first lot of fallen apples. Sun was unexpectedly hot while doing this.

I hear the Glasgow housing market is wild at the moment, people having to offer over the odds. Hopefully that's just a post-shutdown reaction.

≤8 S, Sc
Sun-through at times
1300 HOT
1430 SLOW SHOWER
1600 RAIN
1700 cont

0600 8 S RAIN
1400 ≤8 Sun-through

Weird thing - 86° F in the bedroom now, and it feels deliciously cool after multiple nights of 92° F. And yet I used to think - in this house - that 84° F was an outrageous bedroom temperature.

RAIN overnight
8 As
Cooler
1100 HEAVY SHOWER THUNDER HEARD

Very loud thunder at 8 am followed by a downpour. Was just as hot later though, but with a cool breeze.

Much sun
VERY HOT
Cooler breeze
0800 THUNDER SHOWER

Went early to Tesco after a surprisingly good night's sleep, cold-pack assisted, 8.30pm-5am. It was very hot coming back even at 8.30.

Felt a lot better than yesterday - I now know I'm going to move as soon as the plague subsides.

Also made progress with two work issues. I always feel worse when I think I'm not making progress.

EXTREMELY HOT

While up the garden watering the remaining potato plants about 6.15, had a twinge of regret about the idea of leaving. Now the tree has grown, the top of the garden is like a separate room, you can hardly see the houses.
OTOH sitting in the garden is annoying after a short while, with heat and glare and insects.

I suppose I'm a buffet person really, I like short bursts of a lot of different pleasures.

0800 SLOW SHOWER
Much sun
VERY HOT

Very hot last night, had to deploy a cold-water-bottle (ice pack). Used my old grey scarf as the wrapper, very good insulator.

Very hot walk to the shops and back this morning.

Much sun
VERY HOT

Still very hot. Slept badly as a result, only about 4h. But insomnia is much better now I have so many bedroom audio options. I can listen to the World Service as of old, or the Al-jazeera audio stream, or WNYC, or some of the comedy and drama on the laptop.

Much sun
HOT

Unpleasantly hot weather.

4-8 Cu, Sc
Some sun
HOT

Crossing the recreation ground on the way to the shops, I was struck by the heat, it was like walking across a parched savannah.

Now people are getting noticeably careless re infection, I have a strange nostalgia for the bright, cold, callous early days in April when everyone was taking it very seriously and I was consumed by Survivors.
Everyone being careless now is like the retcons later in Survivors where the plague propagation period is greatly extended, and people are seen not to have behaved creditably.

Sun
VERY HOT

Some of the aftermath aerial pictures from Beirut very Game of Thrones, with the devastation and ruined buildings and drifting smoke

~6 Cu
some sun
->
1600 0 HOT

Parents came up. Had our usual walk round the park. Then something new, they gave me a lift to Tesco. I wore a face cover and we kept the windows open, and in any case we could be considered to be in a support bubble. I think that's the closest I've been to other people since mid-March.

Cloudy start
->1000 6 Cu Sun HOT
Breezy

Much sun
COOL at first
->HOT

RAIN overnight
0600 RAIN
->
3-8 Cu Sun

Reading the Money Observer I bought yesterday, I gathered it was the last ever issue. Weirdly they didn't say why they were ceasing publication. I'm pleased in a way, because they printed a lot of anti-Corbyn stuff, but displeased because it's been part of my monthly cycle for some years now.

Alternatives: Moneyweek, which is frothingly right-wing, Moneywise, which is written for simpletons, and the Investors' Chronicle which is fairly right-wing and quite boring.

Typically 5 Cu Sun
HOT

0900 1 small fair-weather Cu
->typically 6 Cu Sun HOT
2000 SLOW SHOWER with sun

Very hot day, but luckily there was a a stiff breeze to take the edge off it.

Reassuring feeling of finding myself back in the pasta aisle at Tescos where it all began on Mar 12 - when I photographed the empty shelves - and seeing them once more full of pasta.

Text from S. She is in the new Northern Contagion Zone.

<1 Sun
Breezy
VERY HOT

Sun
Occasionally thick Ci
HOT

It's the first night of the holidays - but it feels very different, this year, because I'm already at home. The plague has really saved me work-wise, because I wasn't in a good place Jan-Feb, and it took me till May to get my mojo back. But now I'm once again confident of my abilities.

Some sun

Some sun

8 Sc
RAIN at times
Windy
2000 Sun

Mowed lawns in the afternoon - there was a light shower just as I finished, which is the best timing, because you feel virtuous for having done the mowing, but can stop work immediately with a clear conscience.

0600 0 Sun
0700 1 Ci
->4-8 Cu, Sc
->large Cu
1320 LIGHT SHOWER
1440 HEAVY SQUALLY SHOWER

Realised I had the face covering on upside down yesterday. It was certainly easier today with it the right way up.
Lot of people in town getting much too close, I think they assume a covering makes them invulnerable.

RAIN overnight
SPELLS OF RAIN
SUNNY SPELLS
Breezy

Duly put on face covering and went shopping. I felt like a complete plum at first, but soon I began to enjoy it, it was like live SF role-playing. Was irked to see 1 or 2 customers in both the Tesco Express and the Co-op not following my example.

It was a relief though to take it off when I came out of the Co-op and turned towards home, like taking one's bra off.

RAIN overnight
≤8 Sc
SUNNY SPELLS

The face-covering ordinance begins at midnight. It is going to be very strange. Fortunately I took a lesson from whoever that Vietnam war strategist was I watched that prog about that time and didn't allow my ego to strand me in an illogical position, because I could see a month or so ago that it was coming.

Much sun
HOT

Notice the Radio 4 start has gone back to 0520, and News Briefing is back at 0530. During the plague it was replaced by staying with the World Service till after the 5.30 news.

At the daily zoom meeting B was talking about the back-to-work plan and saying he didn't want us to go back to the office because it had become obvious that we could perfectly well work remotely.

0600 7 m-Ack
Gradually more sun
->HOT

2-8 Cu, Sc
Sun

Co-op had signs up warning people that the face covering ordination takes effect on Friday.

Encouraging news about COVID vaccines and therapies. Latter probly more important as it'd be at least a year before the latter is widely in use, even if it turns out to be a winner.

About noon was looking at the sunlight, which had just come round to that side of the house, gilding the edge of the gold curtains, with the green and yellow euonymous visible through the white net curtain, and blue sky and white clouds in the upper half of the window. It was a good, peaceful feeling, the sort of way I hoped I'd feel all the time living here, but which the parking situation prevented.

6 small Cu
Cooler

(11.30pm). Spotted the comet 'Neouise' - pretty faint. At 11pm could just find it with the naked eye once I'd located it with binoculars. So that's better than Halley, which was very dim if I saw it at all in 1986, and worse than Hale-Bopp, which looked like a proper picture-book comet to the naked eye in 1997. This one was in the NW rather like H-B.

Have stayed up 1-1½ hours past my bedtime for this. For science!

Saw a shooting star during the observations too.

8 Sc
BRIGHT at times

If I'd stuck to my plan of moving elsewhere in town, my dreams would be in bits. As it is, the corona disaster has been a good thing for my plans.
That's assuming I don't get the plague and die, of course. Though if I do, I won't care, as I'll be dead.

Much sun
HOT

Doing the Weather Diaries in the morning found that Jul 17 1989 ended in 3 dots which looked suspiciously out-of-band, and they were - I'd got distracted and left 3 or 4 paras untranscribed. Duly did them, and was rewarded with two incidents I'd forgotten about.

0700 <8 Sc-allop Sun
1100 6 Cu
1700 0 HOT

Rather gloomy day.

8 Sc
Dark at times

ST SWITHIN'S DAY. Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, but it soon clouded over, and in the afternoon it was quite dark and cold.

Some sun
Quickly ->8 Sc
PM DARK COLDER
1730 SHOWER

All in all I think I've coped quite well with the plague - perhaps thanks to Survivors.

RAIN overnight
≤8 Sc
Some sun

Some sun
HOT
Calm
->Breezy

0700 Sun 1 Cu
->
1400 ≤8 Sc

4-8 large Cu
Sun
Breezy

RAIN at times
PM SHORT SHARP SHOWER

(9pm). It was raining on and off during the day, but since about 6.30-7 it's been raining determinedly. The near back lawn is visibly greener.

RAIN overnight
8 Sc
RAIN at times
1900 STEADY RAIN

8 Sc
1600 LIGHT RAIN

0700 0 Sun
0900 1 Cu
->
4-8 Cu, Sc
Breezy

Woke up at 4, couldn't get back to sleep, so got up at 6 and did admin. It was grey and windy, and when I got back into bed at 6.45 it was raining, But much to my surprise I fell asleep till 8, by when it was a bright breezy day.

0600 8 Sc
0700 RAIN
0800 Sun
Typically 6 Cu
(all) WINDY

8 Sc
LIGHT RAIN at times
Breezy

Some sun
Breezy
1600 SPITS OF RAIN
2000 RAIN

Sun and HEAVY SHOWERS

≤8 Sc, large Cu
Breezy
Occasional sun
1630 LIGHT SHOWER

Dark, gloomy day mostly.

8 S
RAIN at times
1930 Sun-break

Typically 8
Some sun
Windy

Lawns and weeding beds in the garden.

4-8 Sun
Windy
DROPS OF RAIN at times
2100 RAINBOW

Was thinking that the plague came at just the right time for me. I was despairing at the thought of being stuck in the parking routine for another year, and at the thought of the work noise going on for ever, and the plague has solved both problems. It distracted me from the first, and took me away from the second.

To town in the morning; odd to see so many of the shops open. Noticed I'm very definitely only browsing for stuff I actually need - shopping has become such a pain that I don't want to do any more of it than necessary.

LIGHT SHOWERS with sun
Sunny spells
Windy

Some really fuckwitted behaviour down at Bournemouth yesterday. It's the same attitude that led to Brexit.

89°F in the bedroom now, and that's with the curtains closed since 11am. Don't recall an evening temperature over 84°F before.

0700 THUNDERY SHOWER
≤4 Ci Sun HOT
Breezy

Very hot today. Went for a walk round the block in the afternoon, like in the early days of the plague. I did feel better for getting out of the house.

≤1 Sun
VERY HOT
Breezy

Took the car to Pellimer and back just like the long-ago days, probably never to return, when I last did that at the end of February, 4 months ago. It was my regular Monday-morning routine for years, and then pfft!

I want to be ready to move out of this house as soon as things approach normality again, which won't be for a while judging from the way people are behaving on the street at the moment. 'They think it's all over.' They'll all be crowding into pubs Saturday week, and crowding the ICUs 3 weeks later.

~0 Sun VERY HOT

Very hot weather, and hotter to come, apparently.

≤2 Ci Sun HOT

Interesting that 'Monday morning' is still the same even if I'm not going into work; it's a state of mind I assume as I sit at the computer.

Reading The Lion in the North again, was reminded that this isn't the first time English people have fled to Scotland: 950 years ago people were doing the same thing after the Norman invasion, inc Edgar Atheling, the true successor to Harold.

0700 0 Sun HOT
->1400 4 Cu

0800 8
1100 <8 mAck Sun
Continuing to be less cloudy

To town in the morning; all the inessential shops were open, so I was able to get Bob's new album Rough and Rowdy Ways in HMV, and browse around Debenhams for the first time in at least 3½ months - bought a t-shirt. Haven't been so pleased with shopping since c. May 1995, when I got a debit card again after being unemployed.
At the M&S checkouts got talking to a staff member. They were saying how crowded the store suddenly was, and made a joke about the president of the Ukraine (who, I recall, was formerly a TV comedian) and Johnson, who is just an amateur.

The extended daylight saw me closing the curtains at 10.32pm - as late as it's going to get under normal circumstances.

0800 0 Sun
0900 2 small Cu
1300 LIGHT SHOWER
->~6-8 large Cu

|Bob|

Since the plague started it's been common to find the aisles of smaller shops closed while they re-stock that particular area. But if you ask politely, they will reach you the item you desire. Woman in the Co-op not only obliged my organic skimmed milk request today, but chose one with a longer date, unbidden.

Made bread. Since I've stopped needing work packed lunches, I've not made bread every Saturday like I used to; instead I make it whenever I get fed up with the shop stuff, which is about every 2 weeks.

Typically 6 large Cu
Sun
Warm

RAIN overnight
4-8 large Cu
Sun
HOT

Realised recently that this stage of the shutdown reminds me of A-level revision - the hot weather, the house to myself, the bursts of work, the nicking gin from my parents...

0700 0 Sun
1000 2 small Cu, Ci
1200 6 ambitious Cu
1700 8 thick Cs, Sun-through
HOT

Hot day.

0800 0 Sun
HOT
->
1200 6 Ci, Cu

Beautiful fine June weather.

0800 0 Sun
->HOT
1000 1 Ci, Cu cells
1500 5 Ci, hard-edged medium Cu

Harvested a lot more strawberries, a full handful this time.

Typically ~5 Ci and Cu
Breezy

In town found kidney beans (dry) - the first I've seen for 3 months. So of the three most obstinate things I couldn't get from March 12 onwards - yeast, bread flour and dry kidney beans - they were all back in the shops after 13 weeks.

Got out in the garden in the afternoon, cut back all the vegetation overhanging the path. Hot work. Pleased with myself afterwards though.

0900 5 Ci
->~2 Sun
1800 WINDY

≤8 Sc
MUGGY
Wind SE
Occasional sun
LIGHT SHOWERS

AM. SHOWER
8 Sc
Sun-breaks PM
->Windy

Took the car for a spin to Steeple Sinderby again. Got petrol on the way back - Tescos petrol station very quiet, and petrol £1.02! It was £1.30 last time I bought any. And not walking to work every day I've not been passing the petrol station sign that keeps me apprised of the price.

Parents came to visit later, the rain slackened off enough for us to go for a distanced walk round the park.

Latest coronavirus test negative. '"Reject" yourself!'

8
Much RAIN

Cloudy to start
c.1700 clearing ~2 Sun

COVID test collected about 11.30.

Harvested more strawberries later.

≤8 Sc
Some sun

Tidied up and swept the bins area outside the back door, before the rain started, luckily.

≤8 Sc
Some sun
Cold
SHOWERS and SPELLS OF RAIN

Cold and blowy in the morning, wore my coat into town, had the heating on when I got back.

COVID test kit arrived by courier at 6.45pm. I hope the neighbours were impressed and thought it some kind of crucial work document delivery.

Walking into town in the morning and thinking about how things are at the moment, I thought 'It's a strange new world - but full of opportunity.' I was pleased to realise that's how I felt. I'm thinking like a survivor.

0800 ≤8
Cold
Windy
Some sun
SPELLS OF RAIN
1500 Warmer

Have been allocated another COVID test because of the symptoms I reported yesterday, even though once again I'd said they were part of a migraine.

5-8 large Cu
Some sun
Breezy
Cold
SHOWERS

Developed a migraine about 11.30. Fell asleep about 2 and woke up convalescent. Slow, healing shower of rain at 6.30, very therapeutic.

5-8 Sc
some sun a.m.
1800 SLOW SHOWER

Rather cloudier than lately, but still hot. Had to work really hard again.

What's most astonishing about the events in the US is the kind of people who've come out against Trump, particularly since he had those people tear-gassed at that church so he could blasphemously pose with a bible. Dubya said Trump 'didn't understand America'.

Some sun
HOT

When I woke up in the morning I couldn't work out what day it was - Friday? Sunday?

Gave the car an idle in the afternoon. A lot of the parking spaces were empty, for the first time since the plague began.

Much sun
HOT

Sun ~3 Ci
HOT

Spent half an hour weeding the potatoes and strawberries - fine way of thinking up the next step in the solution I was working on.

Sun ≤1
HOT
Windy

0 Sun
HOT

That card from C had an unexpected £20 in it. Weird because I haven't really seen cash for about 2 months. Kind of him though.

They actually had yeast in the Tesco Express, the first time I've seen any for about 3 months.

First quarter moon.

Sun
Typical 3 Ci, Cu
Warm

C came round with what he described as a belated birthday card at lunchtime - I put the plastic garden chair in the front garden for him and we had a distanced chat, mostly about Survivors.

Typically 2 Sun
HOT

Took the car for a 15-minute spin to Steeple Sinderby and back. That's the first time in 10 weeks I've been anywhere more than 1½ miles from home. Felt very odd when I got to Sinderby without having done any walking.

Then walked round the park first with dad, then mum, keeping 2m from each. Nice to talk to someone who isn't on a screen. Then they witnessed my will, again at a distance.

Some sun
HOT

Much sun
HOT

Typically 2 Sun
HOT

In the notes part of my purse found a bit of paper with 'pencil for pink rucksack' written on it. It's a note I made while on holiday in Glasgow - and it's still in the purse because I came home Mon Mar 9, and the pasta ran out Thu Mar 12, and I don't think I've paid cash for anything since that week.

Some sun

At 'survival' level I've got 26 weeks' supplies - 6 months.

Sun 2-7 Cu
Windy
HOT

To the Co-op: I was the only customer, the first time that's happened since the plague started.

Some sun
Breezy
->
Much sun
HOT
Windy

COVID test result came through: negative. That's a relief.

0815 LARGE DROPS OF RAIN
Sun HOT
Gradually becoming cloudier
Breezy

Am finding work and the weather and the neighbours and the shutdown really stressful at the moment.

Haven't had my COVID test result yet. Another 3 days before it's overdue.

Had to have the fan on last night for the first time this year.

Sun HOT

The stuff I ordered online on Sunday arrived, including pulse oximeter (the finger-clip thing they used on me in hospital, which measures pulse and blood oxygen, the latter being very important if you get COVID).

14°C overnight
Sun 0
HOT
Gradually more cloud
Breezy

Administered the COVID test, with an intrusive mental picture of Paul in Survivors injecting himself with tetracycline. Courier came for it about 10.30.

Sun
4 Ci, Cu
Breezy

Sun Cu
Breezy

Ac, Ci, Sc
Some sun
1630 SHORT SHOWER

1100 8 Cool
->
1500 Cu Sun
->0

Had to endure a lecture from B about being rude. Another tech milestone memory to treasure, the first time I got a bollocking via zoom.

Typically 6 Cu Sun
Breezy
Cool

Whole food order came - 8kg of rice and 2kg of wheat grains. The poor DPD bloke could hardly carry it.

0800 Sun
--->8

Much colder today, and bright.

Sun Cold
Typically 4 Cu
WINDY N

Interesting Zoom chat with mum and dad in the morning. Mum remembered Seymour on Self-sufficiency as something everyone was talking about in 1975, and later I saw the book was pictured in a Radio Times promotional article about Terry Nation for the week Survivors started.

Sun at first
->8 S
Cooler
WINDY

Too hot for a coat in the morning. Didn't have to queue to get into Wilkinsons or Boots, which was very welcome, but a lot of people seemed to have unilaterally decided social distancing had finished. Probably more people barging into my 2m circle than on any previous occasion.

Lot of extraordinary images of people holding street parties yesterday, as if the plague had magically disappeared. It's ironic; had those people been in WW2 they'd probably have refused to black their houses out.

Last night started watching The Good Life, which I find is exactly contemporary with Survivors, having first gone out 12 days earlier. Some lines really do resonate, especially the one about self-sufficiency making them free.

Much sun
Hot

Much sun
Warm

Much sun
Warm
Ci

Another beautiful day. Did 10 minutes' weeding on the potato patch late in the afternoon, before watering it. Strawberries coming along wonderfully.

While I was attending to the potato patch spoke to neighbours over the fence. I said, re the shutdown, that I liked the peace and quiet, but that it would be nice to see more people, which no doubt would both have been my sentiments in Survivors.

Wonderful Full Moon in the evening. Swifts flying fast and very low.

Sun
2-4
Breezy

Rather nice day, not too hot.

Sun
2-4 Cu
Cool
Breezy

Did as little work as possible today, as I object to the Tories cancelling the May Day bank holiday.

Sun
Cu bubbling up, to c.1400, then reducing

Had zoom chats with L last night, and mum and dad today. This is the future!

8
DROPS OF RAIN at times

To town in the morning. Still can't get over how deserted it is. At 10.30am I was the only person in the square, my footsteps were echoing.

--->1500 4 Cu Sun

MAY DAY.

Sun and SHOWERS

Well, this has been the strangest April I've ever lived through.

Some sun a.m.
->1400 large Cu seen
1500 RAIN
1615 SQUALLY SHOWER

Tescos had loads of delivery slots next week, so put in a big order. Felt a bit like I'd spotted the hot air balloon.

RAIN overnight
Some sun
1500 RAIN

Weather changed; lot of rain in the morning. While out for my exercise walk in the afternoon I had the odd feeling that, as it wasn't sunny any more, the plague must be over. Some hope.

8 dark S
RAIN a.m.
HEAVY at times

Tesco Express had Spanish omelettes again, confirming my impression last week that at least the first wave of the Difficulties was over.

Some sun

Mowed lawns in the afternoon, weeded potato patch.

In the evening fine sight of the New Moon and Venus about 6° apart.

One of the things that's made Survivors such an attraction for me is that, amid the desolation and fear and struggle for survival, there's a sense of freedom. Watching ep 2.11 just now, the trees blowing in the late spring sun, wouldn't that be a fine sight to see and know that it was just you and Nature? Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her.

~2 Sun
WARM

Into town in the morning. No queue at all in Boots (and the makeup aisles were open) or in M&S. I'd noticed yesterday in the Tesco Express that the atmosphere was calmer and the shelves better stocked. The first time the pasta shelves were empty was Thu Mar 12, so the difficulties (part 1?) lasted 6 weeks.

That suggests my guess of 10 weeks' no deal disruption à la three-day week wasn't a bad one. The thing to do, I think, is to amalgamate the no-deal and Survival caches into one, to last at least 13 weeks and preferably 26 weeks.

Interesting that the two caches don't quite overlap: I didn't anticipate needing to cache makeup, because I thought no-one would care what people looked like during no deal. But of course when you're trying to access resources under pressure, it's easier if you look good.

Really I should be doubly grateful that my no deal preparations were useful for the plague, and that the plague was - is - a useful practice run for no deal.

0900 8 Cool
--->
1400 Sun
Warm

Sun
Warm

Lovely weather again. While I was watering the potatoes in the afternoon a blackbird flew down from the fence and began pecking the ground, like that robin did once. I kept very still and it ran over the bed and onto the lawn, pausing 3 times less than a yard from me. It could see I was there, but it braved my presence.

Sun
Warm with Ci later

Sun
Breezy
Warm

Another bright warm day with a cool East wind.

Sun
Windy cool E
Warm

Sun
Cool E breeze

Fine day - sun warm, but cool breeze from the East, like one of our childhood summer holidays on the east coast.

≤1 Sun
Warm
Cool E breeze

Into town. On impulse went into M&S for groceries. They had stuff I'd forgotten about, like Edam in wedges. And I didn't have to queue to pay. NB to try there again.

8 'wet' S
1100 SHOWER
Brighter later
Colder all day

My mental sharpness seems to be returning.

Sun Much cloud
Breezy
Warmer

Went out round the block in the afternoon. 'Subject exercises daily with a walk round the Village.'

Much sun
More high cloud later
Warm

The worst thing about this is that I keep thinking 'I could be dead in 3 weeks'. That's not something I'm used to dealing with, nor is it something I ever expected to have to deal with. Still, that book on the Black Death (Gottfried) has been very comforting.

While lying awake in the quiet last night I was pretending to be in Survivors again, but it was too stressful, I began worrying about the farm animals and the soap-making.

Much sun
Warmer

Reading that book about the Black Death again.

Much sun
Cool

To the Co-op in the morning. Plenty of toilet paper there now.

0800 8 dark
--->
1300 Sun
Colder.
Breezy

EASTER SUNDAY. Even quieter today, quieter than a normal Christmas Day.

Sun
More cloud
1400 Ac cast seen
1600 Large Cu seen
1800 8
2200 WINDY

It is so quiet at the moment, by day and by night. There are two ways this will turn out: either I'll spend a long time wishing I could have this quiet back again, or a rather shorter time wishing the noise could come back.

This morning btw I genuinely couldn't work out what day of the week it was. I had to look at my watch.

Sun Warm

Sun with haze/Cs & Ci
Warm

~2 Sun
Warm

At Tesco the two self-checkout women were wearing vizors and smiled wryly at me.

Sun 2-4 Ci
Warm

0800 8 As, Ac
1000 SPOTS OF RAIN
->
1300 6 Cu Sun Cooler

Beautiful weather. Got out in the garden in the morning and planted potatoes. As usual, raked up enough potatoes from last year that I'd missed at harvest time to make a meal.

≤2 Ci Sun
Warm
Breezy

Wore proper makeup today for the first time in a while - somehow it didn't suit the mood during the period when I thought society might collapse.

In the afternoon cut up and shredded the latest branches to have been blown off the buddleia.

People are ordering me about more than they usually do at the moment. The older woman at the Co-op was all 'Could you stand on that square - no, that one so you aren't in the walkway.' I'm glad I watched Orange is the New Black now, I might not've been able to deal with it otherwise.

≤2 Ci Sun
Warm

Last night Venus was near the Pleiades, so I went out to enjoy the sight with binoculars.

Stock at the Co-op returning to normal, they had paracetamol! And 9-roll packs of toilet rolls.

Noticed that the nitpicking scan of sky shots one does when watching pre-CGI stuff set post-apocalypse or historically, for stray planes, has been feeding back into real life. I see a plane in the sky now and think 'they missed that one...'

Spoke to N on the phone for the first time. While we were talking, there was a splendid crepuscular ray through a hole in the Sc, and then a larger hole with three rays. Sort of 'Sunshine on Paisley'.

<=8 Sc with bright cracks
Sun
Cold

<=8 Sc with cracks, sun
Warmer

Last night was awake for hours. Lay in the deep dark and deep silence. Had a sort of sense of being alive which I rarely feel - after I came round from surgery was the last time. When you've had to face the idea of dying you realise that being alive is a bonus.

Was engaged in conversation by woman next in queue outside Tesco Express; she very taken with my remark that everything is like a strange dream at the moment.

When the Co-op bloke asked me if there was anything else, I said ruefully that I'd wished there'd been some eggs, whereupon he produced a box of 10 from behind the counter. Free-range too. Result.

In the evening, very sad tweet from a doctor about signing more death certificates in one night than ever before, and the 'little things'; a book with a bookmark still in, an unread text from family, a watch still ticking.
Then SB's Facebook account had a message from his sister, saying he'd died. Very sad.

0800 FROST Sun
<= 8 Sc

As I was going out I met the postman, and thoughtfully stepped back to give him his 2m, for which he thanked me.

Felt weirdly sleepy and dissociated from afternoon onwards, as if this is all just a dream.

Clearer later
Sun

Gave the car another 10-minute idle, a 3-yard drive and a good rock to exercise the suspension.

While I totally agree with the distancing measures, a lot of people seem to be using them as a way of getting their neighbours arrested. For some people the Difficulties are bringing out their inner Sergeant Wilson, for others they're bringing out their Warden Hodges.

<8 large Cu
Windy
Sun
1200 SHOWER

Occurred to me that, if I do catch coronavirus and die, I'll never find out whether the pandemic destroys humanity or not.

Half the remaining buddleia blew down in the squalls. It never rains but it fucking pours.

5-8 large Cu
SHOWERS some with HAIL
Sun Windy

Weather rather cloudier today, quite cold in town in the morning.

Town very quiet, like a Sunday before 1994. All the shops were doing the 2m thing and most of them were making people wait outside.

Coming home I felt quite good - I realised it was because I'd been out of the house for 2 hours, longer than I have been for a week.

These last few weeks, I've been facing the prospect of dying more than I ever have before. I think I can face it though, because - although I've still got lots of issues - I've become a version of myself that I like. I would not like to have died the angry bitter person of 2008, or the nihilistic one of 2010.

Ci, Ac Sun
1000 6
1600 4
Windy

Co-op had loo rolls! It's taken 2 weeks for supplies to return.

When I'd unpacked the shopping I put the telly on about 11.20, and heard that Creepton had coronavirus! During the day the health minister and that chief medical officer also went down with it. 'Damage control computer damaged.'

Rather more traffic this morning, I thought.

Sun Cold
Typically 6 Ci
Breezy

Helped E fix an issue on his PC. It was very high-tech, we had a Zoom meeting into which he shared his PC desktop so I could see what he was doing.
Historians - if there are going to be any - will say that remote working was an idea whose time had truly come.

Trump appears to have gone even madder, he's talking about undoing isolation and having 'packed churches on Easter Sunday', which will mean packed hospitals by the end of April. 'Let me tell you, Harriet...'

0600 FROST
Sun Cold
Typically 6 Ci

Tesco Express had eggs, the first ones I've seen for nearly 2 weeks. So far my foraging strategy has been to go to small stores, buy whatever they've got fresh, and eat that, leaving my preserved stockpile for the future. It's working well.
Almost everyone at the shops was very carefully social distancing..

Greenish comet being talked about. From Survivors to Day of the Triffids.

Email from M. He remarked that it's hard to remember what day of the week it is, like at Christmas.

Sun Cold
Typically 4 Ci

Was really slow working, because I'd just have managed to concentrate when then I'd remember how frightening real life has suddenly become. I say 'frightening', but it's what might happen that's frightening. On the surface everything is calm and benign, it's beautifully quiet, the weather is fine if cold, the daffodils from yesterday are brightening up the room.

477 people dead from coronavirus. This is the most stressful time I've ever lived through, by two orders of magnitude I think. If anything I'm impressed that I'm coping as well as I am.

Forced myself to do music practice, which was hard at first because I started crying again. But I persevered, and I found some music that fits: Let Me Die In My Footsteps. I played it through 5 times and my spirits were raised again.

Put the laundry away. A person who does music practice hopes to live to play better, a person who puts clothes away hopes to live to need to wear them.

One good thing about this situation, and Survivors, is that they've helped me remember what it is to be human.

Sun
typically 4 Ci
Cold

Into town immediately after the video conference. Everyone, almost, practicing social distancing. Sainsburys giving out free flowers, presumably unsold Mothers' Day ones. Thanked them nicely. Put them in a jug when I got home. Small daffodils. Nice - cheered me up.

My coronavirus 'degrees of separation' poll on the forum is showing a steady rise in people reporting a '1 remove' connection, ie an acquaintance who's got it. Though 63% still have no connection at all.

I gathered during the evening that Creepton had announced the expected new rules - all non-essential shops to close, no-one to go out except to the remaining shops, etc. The one consolation is that he dislikes having to make that announcement to me just as much as I dislike hearing it from him. But we both have to put up with it if we don't want to be very shortly plunged into Survivors. (And there I'd have the advantage, because I bet he's only seen the remake if he's seen either of them).

0600 0 Sun
Cold
1600 4 Ci

Another beautiful day. Although the sun was bright it was cold outside.

My diet has become much more varied because I'm having to buy what's available and vaguely in my target area - in these cases avocados, fresh noodles and marinated tofu.

Sun Wind cold E
1200 4 Ci
1600 0 LIGHT AIR

Slept badly, only about 4½ hours. Beautiful spring weather, very cold East wind, white cherry blossom and budding trees. Nature's cheerful indifference to our concerns. The coronavirus is one of her manufactures just as we are.
I have been thinking 'we' a lot lately, it's a positive development from my usual misanthropy.

Into town for the FT (while money still means something...)

Much sun
Cold wind E

Across the road someone's recycling box had blown into the road, so I crossed over and put it back on the pavement. Heartened by this small act of orderliness, I set off for work. I looked up at the blowing low clouds in the south and my morale improved still further.

I got the connectors I needed and emptied my work stash of paracetamol and other first aid into my bag. This reminded me very strongly indeed of the supplies gathering that everyone does in apocalypse drama.

Sun came out in the afternoon continuing the rising mood. But when the sunset light began reflecting off the clouds, the bright indifference of Nature reminded me that we're still a long way from safety, a year perhaps.

So strange how quickly I've got used to that idea. I think last Thursday was the last day I had something else on my mind - the 12th. Sunday to Tuesday I was upset, Wednesday I began to deal with it, yesterday I was feeling better.

0900 <8 As, low fragments
Wind cold E
1500 ~6 Cu Sun
1700 4 Cu

Felt better today - I still realise civilisation might collapse, but also that it isn't helpful to expect the power to go off every moment. 'Enjoy the silence.' Ep 3 of Survivors last night helped.

8 Sc
->low dark Sc by 1700

Rather eerie quietness a lot of the day, with the birdsong unnaturally loud.

Worked from home. There'll be a regular video chat with all of us at 9.30 each day from tomorrow.

At the Co-op you weren't allowed more than 2 of anything. Now, if they'd all brought that in a week ago, this whole thing would've been a lot easier.

Read Journal of the Plague Year on Gutenberg. Lot of apposite quotes.

The day went by quite fast. Is this what unemployment would've been like if I'd had the internet?

Story about a flu antiviral being effective in some COVID cases. Probably too soon to relax. Might punt on equities though. If things turn out bad, money will be no good to me anyway.

Occurred to me today that the two groups of people I probably most despise - Leavers and the far-right fuel blockaders from 2000 - have done me a big, big favour by prompting me to lay in supplies. Otherwise I might have been caught like the narrator of Plague Year, with nothing in stock.

Also occurred to me today that, if there is going to be any more history, future historians will be fascinated by us, they'll think 'What was it like to live through 2020-21, how was it to see one's whole view of the universe contradicted and destroyed?' We'll seem to them like the people of 1939 or 1929 or 1914 or 1796 or 1687 do to us.

8 high Sc

Very quiet at work. At lunchtime in the library felt like re-enacting that Burgess Meredith ep of Twilight Zone.

In the afternoon we got the word that we could work at home henceforth. That was a weird bit of packing away, a sort of sombre version of when I'm going on holiday.

I know how to cope up until the power and water go out. After that I'll have to improvise.

Some sun
Cold

Got to Sainsburys at 6.50am, ¼ hour earlier than usual, and found it at least 3x busier than it should be. All the expected things were sold out, including toilet rolls and paracetamol, and only the weird varieties of baked beans were left. No bin bags either. I stocked up on everything they did have, but didn't buy more than 2 of anything.

Couldn't concentrate on work, though I did manage to get bin bags at the Co-op. Felt like I did when I had depression, especially in Mar 1995, that mood where the bright daylight seems cold and hollow.

But with the small victory of the bin bags my mood began to improve. Understand that I'm not afraid of getting coronavirus, I'm afraid of starving to death or being violently killed in some Changes/Survivors/Threads dystopia. I have a very clear mental picture of the latter fate.

2-4 Ac Sun
Cold

Lot of panic buying reported from yesterday. Email this morning from Sainsburys' chief executive assuring me they had plenty of food, and asking me please not to buy more than I needed.

Am disconcerted by the way Britain, and only Britain, is keeping mass gatherings going. I was initially prepared to believe that Creepton really was taking scientific advice, but now I'm beginning to wonder if the 'scientific advice' is just whatever Cummings happens to've read on nazi Twitter.

Watched ep 1 of Survivors.

8 low Sc

Drizzling in the morning, but fortunately wind behind me on walk to salon.

Tescos very busy; lucky I didn't want toilet rolls, or pasta, because they were both sold out again.

In the afternoon found my composure was a bit rattled by the very rapid spread of coronavirus in Spain. Could we be next? Am not concerned about getting ill so much as society breaking down, or it just getting difficult to buy food.

Realized that I feel I'll be lucky to not die, and for things to go back to normal (even 2020 normal); not that I think those two things are unlikely, just that I've accepted that neither are they certainties any more.

(11pm). Have found an Al-Jazeera audio-only stream. The perfect thing for these worrisome nights.

0700 8 DRIZZLE
1000 stops
1400 SHOWER

Further virus measures - sport postponed, elections postponed, some of the fascist E. European countries closing their borders. Looks like it will be the middle of June before things start returning to normal, if they ever do.

I wasn't planning to get the house on sale till Sep anyway, but at least this means I needn't worry if I should move any earlier, because I won't be able to even if I wanted.

Much sun
1530 VERY SHORT HAIL SHOWER

Pasta shelves in Tescos almost empty. Shares down 8-9% on both sides of the Atlantic.

VERY WINDY overnight
0300 0 Moon
->Typically 0-3 Sun
Cold
WINDY W

One of the health ministers has gone down with coronavirus!

Breezy
2-7 Cu Sun
Warm

Extraordinary scenes in Italy. The quarantine of Lombardy I was hearing about on the radio on Sunday morning as I drove down Annandale was extended last night to the whole country! That gave me a real 70s SF TV frisson.

2-6 Cu Sun
Windy
Warmer

Fine accidental sighting of the Full Moon at 4.30, floating in clear sky and illuminating a few wisps of cloud lower down. Another fine sighting as I was loading the car at 6.15, low down and perfect.

Did the shopping, got extra dried beans and UHT in case I have to self-isolate. Big drop in asset prices. Gladder than ever that I sold most of mine 4 weeks ago.

0730 IN AREA
Sun
->more cloud
->6 Cu, As
1600 8
1900 RAIN

Glasgow at 6.15 am Sunday quite peaceful. Got cloudier on the M74 with sun still breaking through. Sad to leave Scotland again. I shall return.

Extraordinary sight near Shap - a stream running down a hill over grass rather than in a stream bed. Something had obviously overflowed - all the rivers were very full.

At Welwyn saw two hares chasing each other in the hotel grounds. March hares?

Really wet morning - glad we didn't have this weather yesterday.

Last night someone online pointed out that Essex is one of the sunniest places in Britain. And Glasgow is not famous for sunshine. I see that the sunniest place in Scotland is Dundee, which I was also considering.

Realised Glasgow has been reminding me of Rath Eileann - clouds and mist, with sudden shafts of Vega-light breaking through.

Wandered all the way down to the Clyde, and leaned on the rail turning over the idea of making my life here. A seagull flew in a wide circle over the water. I walked across the Portland St suspension bridge and took a picture upstream from the middle: first impression of dark clouds, but the sun is bursting through and the colours of the buildings on the north bank are warm.

Dep 0615, got to Glasgow 1600, 425 miles. Crossed border 1345. Very impressed by the hills from the Yorkshire Dales onwards - snow on the tops of many of them.
Going west on the M80, murky yellow-grey stratocumulus but with sun coming through quite brightly, as if promising that effort would be rewarded with success. There was, thinking about it now, something Dec 88/Jan 89 about it. Things have changed but they have not [yet] crashed in a way which means there are no more possibilities than there were before.

(7pm). Someone in the UK has died from coronavirus - that's a step.

Went out again at one for supplies. Would've walked, but it was raining hard by then, so took car down to the Bagshot Rd Sainsburys where it all began in Aug 2014.

Coronavirus stakes being upped; they're citing a scenario where 20% of the workforce are off sick at any given time.
Odd how they can be rational about disease but not about Brexit.

Some sun
0930 OUT OF AREA

Decided to go ahead with my trip and see how it goes. Must keep an eye on the petrol station queues though, I'm not getting into such a close shave as I did with the far-right fuel blockades in 2000. If the coronavirus case numbers spike, people might start panic buying.

RAIN overnight
0800 <=8
-->
1400 2 Cu Sun

Coronavirus starting to take off in this country. A case in Essex, though they won't say where. I'm not afraid of getting it myself, more of the social/technological disruption it might cause. It is getting a bit 70s Doctor Who story.

Much sun
Breezy

0800 RAIN
1130 stops
->Sun, SHOWERS
large Cu seen
1800 0

Rain forecast in the morning from 10 am, but I wanted to go to town, so as to maximise time tomorrow. Seeing the wind would be behind me going in, did so. Still got wet but it's a big difference when it's blowing from behind.
Got bus on to work - when I arrived I got wet enough walking 600 yds into the wind to be pleased I'd opted for the bus.

Am on holiday now till Tuesday lunchtime the week after next. Hope I don't get a cold, or flu or coronavirus, before or during my holiday. Big tub of bactericidal/viricidal wipes in the kitchen at work today.

Wind SE
0600 <=8
1000 LIGHT RAIN
1100 RAIN
cont
1630 More or less stopped

0600 8 RAIN
1000 SNOW
->RAIN
1600 2 small Cu Sun
Cold all day

2-8
Sun Cold
Breezy

0600 0
->
4/8 Ac below/As Sun-through
1830 RAIN

Horrible wet morning with the bright grey sky and rain haze of a land grotesquely awash. To Sainsburys. A lot more auto-tills now - and most of them card-only.

Went to work at 1.15 and got quite wet.

RAIN overnight
0500 RAIN 8
cont
~1500 stops
1700 <8

RAIN overnight
0600 8
SHOWERY RAIN a.m.
->5-8 S Sun
Windy

Coronavirus really seems to be taking off. I decided that it would 2-3 weeks ago, when that news of a vaccine turned out to be false.

0600 8
1100 SHOWER
->8 high Sc
Sun-breaks
Windy

<=8
0900 LIGHT RAIN
later some sun
2000 WINDY

0615 8
Later bright cracks
1530 RAIN Wind N strong

Sun a.m.
->8
1500 LIGHT RAIN
->
1900 RAIN

Some sun a.m.
p.m. <=8 Sc bright cracks

Windy
Some sun
1800 4 Ac, As Venus-through halo!

Dark, rainy day with a sun-break about 4pm. Like a Sunday in winter 1986-87. Ideal weather for de-cluttering.

WINDY overnight with RAIN
Wind abates
RAIN till ~1500
8 Sc
1600 Sun-break
1900 RAIN

0500-0700 RAIN
8 low Sc
1400 RAIN
WINDY

Some sun
Sc, As etc

Worked out that given my current house target price, and the practical delay to moving, I can stop work once I move to Scotland. So I've made it! Walking home in a shower, felt just a bit like Henry Ryecroft when he gets the news of his legacy.

0500-0800 RAIN
->Cu, sun
Cold
1600 SHOWER
CuNi seen

Hurried out into the bright cold morning at 8am and did all the necessary emergency work on the buddleia.
Have the luxury of being late, but I'd best get going. Very pleasant, fulfilling sunny morning so far.

~2-4 Cu Sun
Cold
WINDY

8
1630 Sun-breaks

VERY WINDY W
2-8 Sc Sun
1630 SPATTERS OF RAIN

Very windy in the morning, enough to make me worry about the roof/chimneys, but it's been OK so far.

0400 VERY WINDY
8
warmer
1200 WIND PEAKS SQUALLY RAIN
1600 <8

8
VERY COLD
SPOTS OF RAIN

Got ready very efficiently for my expedition, set off at 9.45. Fine cold day for walking.

0600 0 * HEAVY FROST
->Sun
1600 ~7 Cs, As, Ci

Think the coronavirus may have been discounted too early.

HEAVY FROST
0600 0 *
VERY CLEAR
->Sun
Warm in sun

Much sun
Cold
1700 4/8 Ci/Cs

4-8 Cu, Sc Sun
WINDY cold N

0600 0 *
->Sun

0600 RAIN
8 Sc
Brighter at times
Some RAIN

Becoming brighter
Small Cu Sun
1400 Windy

8 Sc
Some bright streaks
Breezy

Much sun
Cold

Much sun
Cold

Much sun
Very cold
Wind W

On way home got soaked in heavy cold rain. The only good thing about that is how nice it is to be dry again afterwards.

8 S
dark frag under
1600 HEAVY RAIN

0600 8
1730 RAIN

0700 8
0930 SPELL OF DRIZZLE

8
DRIZZLE at times

0600 8

Horrible weather, misty, damp and cold.

0600 SKY OBSCURED MIST
cont
1630 SKY OBSCURED MIST
DRIZZLE

0600 0 *
-2°C
HEAVY FROST
->Sun
VERY COLD

0600 8 Cold
0730 6 Ac Moon
->Sun

Another cold clear day.

0600 * 0
HEAVY FROST
->Sun Cold
1730 P 1041

0800 HEAVY FROST
0 Sun Cold

RAIN in night
0730 SHOWER
->Cold
Some sun
1300 7 Sc-allop
1700 *

Some sun
Cold
Breezy

There was no apparent damage, though when I got home in the evening, I made my usual check up the garden and found that the wind had blown the tarpaulin covering the timber pile about so violently that 3 or 4 of the bricks holding it down had been flung off.

Wind abated rapidly in the morning; at lunchtime went up to the top floor and took first photo of a skyscape of 2020.

to 0130 VERY WINDY
->WINDY
RAIN
~1100 stops
1300 Quickly clearing
->Sun
1700 0 *
Colder

Very windy, set to peak at midnight. Hope it doesn't keep me awake/damage the house.

1300 8
LIGHT RAIN SPELL
1600 Windy gusting F8
2030 cont

0600 * Moon
->Sun 2-7
DRIZZLE AT TIMES
Breezy
1945 Windy
SHOWER

Some sun

8 S, Sc
Brighter at times
Breezy

Some sun
Colder

0500-0800 SPELLS OF RAIN
->some sun
1600-1700 HEAVY SHOWER -> Moon

<=8
Some sun-breaks
Milder

Sun a.m.
1700 8 low S

0600 8
1300 Sun 5 long Ac
1700 SHOWER
Breezy

8
SPELLS OF LIGHT RAIN
Sun-breaks

Cold
Some sun
->Breezy

0300 RAIN
~1000 stops Sun
1300 FINE RAIN
1400 stops
1700 0 Moon

Horrible cold biting wind on the way home, like winter nights of childhood.

8 COLD
1300 Sun-break

NEW YEAR'S DAY. Typical New Year's Day Weather - no rain, with high grey overcast, quite still. But as I've observed in previous years, a sort of clarity.

0700 8
Cold